Easter 5, May 3, 2015 (full size gallery)
We had a split congregation today with our rector and 9 other parishioners with Christ Church Spotsylvania at Shrine Mont. Catherine was responsible for the program ("Stations of Resurrection") and Christ Church would be providing the sermon and service on Sunday.
We had 21 in attendance this morning on one of the most beautiful mornings of the year – temperatures in the 70’s under clear skies. The Iris were beginning to bloom. There was new growth to trees along the river. Blue wild flowers provided a lengthy tableau along Route 17.
We had Morning Prayer with preacher John Sellers and officiant Elizabeth Heimbach. John spent 3 years in seminary, was ordained into the Baptist church and served as an assistant minister in Colorado. He later went back for a doctorate which was a doctorate in American History rather than theology. He told me that the job situation was much better in history than theology. While in graduate school he also directed music in a church in New Orleans. His musical talent is in music. John is clearly an intellectual and mult-talented man. His charming wife Sylvia came too.
John’s sermon was on Chapter one of Mark. This is when John the Baptist prepares the way for Christ but John focused on the Holy Spirit. "I baptize you with[e] water, but he will baptize you with[f] the Holy Spirit.” John professed that the concept of the holy spirit has been difficult for both theologians and philosophers to get an understanding.
The holy spirit may be best understood through examples. The holy spirit was clearly at work with the early disciples. Andrew and Peter, James and John did not not hesitate but left their callings, their professions and immediately joined Jesus. There was no other reason for their action.
John delved into his own family – his mother very religious brought up in the Episcopal church. He gets his Baptist faith from his father. His mother had several siblings but they ignored religion and the church. John’s parents have benefited from their religious life.
John expressed sadness at own time with people caught up in their own pursuits and did not have a spiritual life. The word "I" is used more than any other in conversation. By contrast, this pronoun did not occur in a great work that John cited, The Gettysburg address.
He felt the best moments for understanding the holy spirit came through prayers. John admitted he did not have a specific method or time of day for prayer and that his prayers were more of an extended conversation with the circumstances. He felt close to the holy spirit with his horses.
This is a giving week coming up at St. Peter’s
1. Community Give. The Community Give is a day of supporting non-profits in the Fredericksburg, Stafford, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Caroline and King George counties. Help support the Village Dinner with a $10 or more donation on Tuesday May 5 which will provide 10 pounds of fresh produce for 20 people. We are now feeding as many people as in our congregation. Also support other non-profits – many do unique work. The link to the Website is https://www.thecommunitygive.org/. Then search for “Harvest”.
For the May Village Harvest on May 17, we need considerably more donations. We are trying to collect especially tuna fish and macaroni but any canned goods will do.
2. Shred It is Friday. $5 a bag – bring all of your paper particularly those items with sensitive private information. Last year we collected $385 and made $175 for Outreach. Thanks to Andrea Pogue for conceiving it and leading it.
3. Support Nepal relief. As of Sunday there have been over 7,000 casualties after the recent 7.8 scale earthquake. Concern now is the condition of the airport. Episcopal Relief and Development has been there since the event. There is an urgent need for food, water and shelter. Donate here for the Nepal Disaster relief fund
Nancy did a wonderful vocal arrangement at the offertory on "Come Thou Fount". Nancy and Alex are celebrating a wedding anniversary on May 7
Coffee hour was presented by Helmut and Susana and Elizabeth. It featured Helmut’s lentil soup (Susan’s receipe), a wonderful casserole (page 43 of the cookbook), fruit, sandwiches, raw vegetables. Dessert included oatmeal cookies, brownies and Trifle. Cookie provided the punch.
Ken Pogue has produced some postcards of the church and environment. They are $1 each (extended size). We sold $30 today – available in church and Parish House. A church fund raiser.
Commentary by Canon Lance Ousley, Diocese of Olympia
Stewards of God’s love bear the life-giving Fruit of the Vine in Jesus Christ.
In the 1st Century water was often in short supply and fresh potable water was even more scarce. So wine was needed to survive. The reality is that wine was a matter of life or death for Jesus and his contemporaries. The image of the vine for Jesus’ 1st Century hearers was poignant because they understood viticulture and its intensive care.
The good vine steward spends much time attending his vines and knows that only with proper care the branches of the vine will produce good fruit. This is year-round work nurturing the vine in each season to produce the abundant harvest that the vine was meant to produce through its branches. The vine is pruned in early spring of the branches that will not produce fruit. In the summer the amount of leaves on the branches are regulated. Too many leaves can rob the fruit of nutrients needed to produce the best fruit and an abundant harvest. The fall brings the harvest of the well-attended fruit. And the winter is a time of mulching and protecting the vine from the elements for the next growing season. All of this care for the vines meant life for the community in the 1st Century. With an abundant harvest the whole community could and would thrive.
Jesus tells his disciples and us that he is the Vine and that we are the branches, and he reminds us that only the branches that are connected to the Vine can produce fruit. God is the Master Vine Steward, who has planted Jesus the Vine in the world so that the world can have life through the Vine and the fruit that it produces. All of God’s tending the Vine and branches is an act of love to give the fruit of abundant life to the world.
John teaches us in his 1st letter to the Church what this fruit is to look like in the world. The fruit of Love that is produced through abiding in Love is shown through our loving one another. And it is in the midst of our loving one another the way God the Vine Steward and Jesus the Vine have loved us that this fruit of abundant life is produced. So we are to be stewards of the same type of loving care the Vine Steward gives the Vine and the Vine gives to the branches sharing this fruit with the world around us. In this stewardship of the fruit of Love, we are branches of the Vine producing fruit through him that gives life not only to the world, but also to us. We truly cannot thrive without producing the fruit God intends for us, and this takes attentive year-round attention like a good vine steward.
So how are you living as a Steward of the fruit of Love, both as an individual and as a community